Pages

Friday, October 17

Question Friday - How Do You?

Here we are again - it's Friday and that means it's time for our new meme here at WordWranglers. It's Question Friday! I took the question this because ... well, it happened to me. So, without further ado, our question:

You get a brilliant idea - plot bunny, piece of dialogue, insight into your character, whatever - at a totally inappropriate time - while driving, in the shower, in the dentist's chair, whatever - what do you do?

Liz said, "If I can, I put a note on my phone or write myself one on paper--remember that? All too often I simply lose it. If I'm very lucky or if it's a really strong bunny, it will come back to me. If it's a piece of dialogue, I say it out loud more than once, regardless of strange looks I might get. I love Nan's singing idea, but I think I'd scare myself!"

Nan said, "If it’s possible to get to my phone, I either type it into the memo application or call my home phone and leave myself a message. If I can’t get to the phone (shower, driving, etc.), I sing it. That sounds so stupid, but if I put a tune to the concept and sing it several times, it’ll stick in my head until I can get to a paper and pencil or a computer or my phone. My husband knows what I’m doing now, but when I first started this several years, he thought I was a little nutso. Once a couple of years ago, when my Grandboy was just a baby, I got an idea for a scene while I was rocking him to sleep. I just changed the words to the lullaby I was already singing. He never knew the difference and I managed to hang onto it until I get him to bed and could find a piece of paper."

Margie said, "Great question and this happened to me yesterday at work. I was putting out a Christmas plaque and the saying on it gave me an idea for a Christmas romance. So, I just kept saying the phrase over and over until I was able to get to pen and paper on my break. I plan to buy the plaque once the store opens.

I use the repetition technique if I'm in the shower or the dentist chair as well. Oh heck--who am I kidding? If I'm in the dentist chair I'm usually screaming on the inside. No ideas are being spawned unless it's a horror.

But for the car I have these mini sticky white boards attached to my steering wheel. They were designed for lockers and I bought them post back-to-school clearance. So, if I get an idea I can usually jot a note or two on the steering wheel--even while driving. Just don't tell my insurance agent :)"

And now it's my turn! I asked the question because I was at the Y teaching my water class when the answer to a plot point popped into my brain. No paper, no iPhone, and I was in the middle of class so I couldn't just stop the class to run upstairs to my locker to grab my phone and make a note. Luckily, I remembered and once I got upstairs I grabbed my phone to make a note. But I was petrified during the whole class I'd lose the idea. I think I'll use Margie (and Nan's) repetition techniques in the future!

Okay, readers, it's your turn. How do you cope with this situation? Don't forget if you have a question, let us know! You can leave your question in the comments or visit our Facebook page and ask over there...we'll add the questions to our list to be answered.

3 comments:

This is a problem for me, too! I usually repeat the idea several times, fixing it in my mind (I hope!!). But otherwise, I have scads of envelopes with ideas on the back :) I can see how it would be a definite problem when you're in the pool :)